In 1982, Richard Feynman proposed that a controllable quantum system could be used to simulate other quantum systems more efficiently than conventional computers. See Feynman, 1982, International Journal of Theoretical Physics 21, pp. 467-488. This controllable quantum system is now commonly referred to as a quantum computer, and effort has been put into developing a general purpose quantum computer that can be used to simulate quantum systems or run specialized quantum algorithms. In particular, solving a model for the behavior of a quantum system commonly involves solving a differential equation related to the Hamiltonian of the quantum system. David Deutsch observed that a quantum system could be used to yield a time savings, later shown to be an exponential time savings, in certain computations. If one had a problem, modeled in the form of an equation that represented the Hamiltonian of the quantum system, the behavior of the system could provide information regarding the solutions to the equation. See Deutsch, 1985, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 400, pp. 97-117.
One limitation in the quantum computing art is the identification of systems that can support quantum computation. As detailed in the following sections, a qubit, which is analogous to a “bit” of a classical digital computer, serves as the basis for storing quantum information. However, qubits must be able to retain coherent quantum behavior long enough to perform quantum computations. The loss of coherent quantum behavior is referred to as decoherence. Further, techniques for reading the state of qubits are needed in order to determine the result of a quantum computation. Ideally, such readout mechanisms do not introduce decoherence to the quantum computing system prior to a readout operation.
The computing power of a quantum computer increases as its basic building blocks, qubits, are coupled together in such a way that the quantum state of one qubit affects the quantum state of each of the qubits to which it is coupled. This form of coupling includes the effect referred to as entanglement. Another limitation in the quantum computing art is the identification of methods that can be used to controllably entangle the states of qubits without introducing a significant source of decoherence.